Courts

Latest San Diego courts headlines

San Diego  A wrongful-death lawsuit against a former El Cajon Lexus dealer accused of contributing to the fiery deaths of a California Highway Patrol officer and his family settled days before trial was set to begin in Los Angeles. The settlement between the parents of the victims and car dealer Bob Baker is the latest in a case that has received worldwide attention over unintended acceleration problems in Toyota ...

SAN DIEGO COUNTY  People who want to contest a traffic ticket or request a reduction in fines will now have to make an appointment before showing up to court in Kearny Mesa. Starting Monday, the traffic court building at 8950 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard will require all courtroom appearances to be scheduled in advance, according to court officials. Walk-ins are still allowed at traffic court facilities in Vista, El Cajon and Chula Vista. Superior Court ...

San Diego  A man accused of taking sexually explicit videos of three girls who attended a San Diego daycare was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison. William Michael Howard, 24, pleaded guilty in federal court in September to three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. The victims — all girls, ages 3, 5 and 7 — went to a daycare operated by the family of Howard's girlfriend. Howard admitted recording each girl’s ...

San Diego  About 75 protesters gathered outside the San Diego Superior courthouse Friday to criticize the use of a controversial state gang conspiracy law they say unfairly targets young minority men. The law is being used for the first time here and has drawn national attention. To be prosecuted under the law, the person must be an active gang member, know about the criminal activities of the gang and benefit from or further those ...

An activist attorney who has blocked City Hall projects and financing mechanisms — all the while using secret clients — went to court on Thursday trying to keep a judge from revealing their identities. Attorney Cory Briggs sues on behalf of San Diegans for Open Government, and last year convinced a judge to protect the identities of the group’s members for fear of reprisals. Now, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith wants Judge Joel Wohlfeil to lift ...

LA JOLLA  A former San Diego attorney who was convicted this week of forgery and writing nearly $2,500 in bad checks was found dead in an apparent suicide at his La Jolla home Wednesday night. Gary Ravet, 60, faced up to four years and four months behind bars in the case. Sentencing had been set for March 24. A San Diego Superior Court jury found Ravet guilty of five felonies on Tuesday: passing a ...

San Diego  A former karate instructor who was convicted of molesting a student at his Tierrasanta studio was sentenced Monday to three years in prison. Juan Melesio Flores, 39, was found guilty in November of committing a sex act on a minor. On Monday, San Diego Superior Court Judge Polly Shamoon sentenced Flores to the maximum term for that charge and ordered him to register as a sex offender for life. A defense attorney ...

San Diego  A suspected immigrant smuggler who was shot in the hand by a U.S. Border Patrol agent last week has been charged with assault on a federal officer and human trafficking. Authorities suspected Juan Ramon Garcia, 22, was involved in smuggling on Feb. 16, after a Border Patrol agent stopped a white Lincoln Navigator registered to him that was being driven by another man, according to charging papers filed in San Diego federal ...

San Diego  A 22-year-old man accused in the shooting deaths of his parents at their Sunset Cliffs home the day after Thanksgiving has been ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial. Criminal proceedings in the case involving Peter David Haynes have been suspended. On Friday, a judge ordered Haynes to be sent for treatment to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County until his competency is restored and the case can resume. Haynes faces two ...

CHULA VISTA  A man accused of beating his ex-wife with a brick outside her Chula Vista home, causing fatal injuries, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder. Rand Eugene Huffman, 64, was charged in the February 2014 attack on Martha Huffman, 63, who died weeks later at a hospital. The couple had been divorced for more than three decades and had an adult son. The defendant and his ex-wife had not spent time together for ...

VISTA  A man who investigators dubbed the “Creeper” for allegedly breaking into North County homes and molesting young girls while they slept may have victimized other children he knew at homes he frequented, a prosecutor said Thursday. Gilbert Andrew Chavarria, 27, pleaded not guilty in Vista Superior Court to 17 felony counts including committing a lewd act on a child and assault with intent to commit child molestation during a residential burglary. Eleven of ...

San Diego  There’s no dispute over whether Tiffany Burney fatally shot her great-aunt. What a jury will have to decide is whether the killing was planned, or was the unintended result of a psychotic episode. Opening statements were held Tuesday in the murder trial against Burney, a 26-year-old with a history of mental illness that includes hearing voices, paranoid delusions, suicidal thoughts and depression. The home of the victim, Daisy Mae Hayes, 74, had ...